Acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement replaced

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Acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement replaced

WASHINGTON — The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been ousted. and replaced by Thomas D. Homan who has extensive experience with the agency and 30 years of immigration enforcement experience.

Thomas D. Homan, who has extensive experience with the agency and 30 years of immigration enforcement experience, now has the job.

The administration didn’t offer any explanation for the move.

The change happened the same day that President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for publicly declining to defend his executive order on immigration and refugees.

ICE executive associate director Thomas Homan has been elevated to the role of acting chief.

The agency’s Twitter account says that Daniel Ragsdale, now out of the top job, is returning to his previous position as deputy director of ICE.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in announcing the change that Homan had led efforts “to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens.” The statement didn’t make any mention of Ragsdale.

An ICE spokeswoman didn’t offer any further explanation for the move when reached early Tuesday.

This is a statement released by ICE:

Today, the president appointed Mr. Thomas D. Homan acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since 2013, Mr. Homan has served as the executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). In this capacity, he led ICE’s efforts to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens, including those who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts.

Mr. Homan is a 33-year veteran of law enforcement and has nearly 30 years of immigration enforcement experience. He has served as a police officer in New York; a U.S. Border Patrol agent; a special agent with the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; as well as supervisory special agent and deputy assistant director for investigations at ICE. In 1999, Mr. Homan became the assistant district director for investigations (ADDI) in San Antonio, Texas, and three years later transferred to the ADDI position in Dallas, Texas.

Upon the creation of ICE, Mr. Homan was named as the assistant agent in charge in Dallas. In March 2009, Mr. Homan accepted the position of assistant director for enforcement within ERO at ICE headquarters and was subsequently promoted to deputy executive associate director of ERO.

Mr. Homan holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and received the Presidential Rank Award in 2015 for his exemplary leadership and extensive accomplishments in the area of immigration enforcement.

I am confident that he will continue to serve as a strong, effective leader for the men and women of ICE. I look forward to working alongside him to ensure that we enforce our immigration laws in the interior of the United States consistent with the national interest.